Cooking with Kids- How to series 4

What first? -Cooking with Kids

The best way to get children interested in cooking is to give them easy recipes that they can have success with quickly.  Cooking with kids is really quite easy once you get the hang of it.  You just assess your child, their interests, and the recipe.  It is true that any recipe will have something a child can help you do to make an awesome dish.  However, we want to have the children learn the skills as well as experience success.  This how to series is set up so that the recipes are organized in such a manner that you can show the child a recipe, practice the recipe with a child then allow the child to “teach” the same recipe to you, a friend or a sibling in order to foster independence in the kitchen as quickly and safely as possible.

Cooking with kids recommends high interest, quick and easy  no heat or cooking level 1a recipes first:

No recipe needed: Pudding (from the box) –pour into a ready made graham cracker crust for a quick and easy pie

Pudding pies with a few extras: fall Pumpkin pie, pistachio pie

Cereal bars are a quick , tasty breakfast or snack!

Apple snacks- trail mix dip, Smiles, Cream cheese fruit dip

Chocolate Chip ‘lasagna’ 

A yummy gluten free, egg free chocolate chip cookie dough snack- great for dipping graham crackers or (Cooking with Kids– How to series level 3a pudding cookies. )

Want to work on a ‘real meal’ rather than just dessert? Try making your own Mexican seasoning mix for tacos.

Gift ideas from children at this level could included gifts in a quart jar- just layer dry ingredients in the jar.  Put a label and ribbon on the jar.  These mixes could also be dumped in a ziploc for quick assembly at a later date.  Here are a couple  gifts in a jar recipes:   homemade body scrub, Brownie mix in a jar.

Hamilton Beach mixer available from Amazon

Cooking with Kids-How to series first level recipes are simple measure and mix, no cutting, no bake or heat.

Read Cooking with Kids– How to series 1, 2,  and 3.